Recent surveys from both the National Household Transportation Survey and the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that around 29% of the United States workforce has the option to work at home, and around 15% usually does so. Working from home pays a double dividend during a pandemic. First, it can help to limit the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus. This supports organizations’ efforts to limit travel and major public events, and more assertive efforts by governments in badly affected regions to restrict population movement altogether. Restricting travel and canceling events have substantial costs at a time when businesses are already dealing with absences due to ... Read More
Science
Women in STEM Career Day Draws Hundreds of High School Students
Nearly 500 female high school students visited California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) on Feb. 21 to learn about the numerous opportunities waiting for them in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) workforce during Women in STEM Career Day 2020. The event was hosted by EXP, a nonprofit organization that helps schools in the Southern California region deliver innovative, career-based curriculum. A long-standing partner with CSUDH, EXP has hosted its annual GPS Your Future STEM career fair on campus for a number of years, and each year CSUDH participates in EXP’s internship program for local high school students. The young women toured CSUDH’s new ... Read More
Climate Change Fueled the Rise and Demise of the Neo-Assyrian Empire
By: Ashish Sinha, California State University, Dominguez Hills, and Gayatri Kathayat, Xi'an Jiaotong University Ancient Mesopotamia, the fabled land between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, was the command and control center of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. This ancient superpower was the largest empire of its time, lasting from 912 BC to 609 BC in what is now modern Iraq and Syria. At its height, the Assyrian state stretched from the Mediterranean and Egypt in the west to the Persian Gulf and western Iran in the east. Then, in an astonishing reversal of fortune, the Neo-Assyrian Empire plummeted from its zenith (circa 650 BC) to complete political collapse within the span of just a few ... Read More
Professor Ashish Sinha Connects Changes in Climate to Collapse of Great Assyrian Empire
Research led by Ashish Sinha, a professor of earth sciences at California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH), connects major changes in climate with the collapse of the great Assyrian Empire. The findings were published in the November 13 issue of Science Advances, a publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Centered in northern Iraq and extending from western Iran to Egypt, the Neo-Assyrian Empire was the largest empire of its time. It collapsed after more than two centuries of dominance with the fall of its capital, Nineveh (modern Mosul), in 612 BCE. In spite of a plethora of textual documentation in the form of cuneiform writings and archaeological ... Read More
Climate Change may be Behind Fall of Ancient Empire, Say Researchers
The Neo-Assyrian empire was a mighty superpower that dominated the near east for 300 years before its dramatic collapse. Now researchers say they have a novel theory for what was behind its rise and fall: climate change. The empire emerged in about 912BC and grew to stretch from the Mediterranean down to Egypt and out to the Persian Gulf. But shortly after the death of the king Ashurbanipal around 630BC, the empire began to crumble, with the grand city of Nineveh sacked in 612BC. By the end of the seventh century BC, the empire’s fall was complete. Now scientists say the reversal in the empire’s fortunes appears to coincide with a dramatic shift in its climate from wet to dry – a ... Read More
